UGO brings strollers to safe stop

May 29, 2009 With an estimated value of USD$6.02 billion, the kids market can be lucrative, if you can crack it. The UGO automatic safety brake for strollers and prams is one of those good design ideas that could find a baby toehold in the market – one day.

The UGO uses a handheld unit, worn by the parent, to communicate wirelessly to the brakes, located in the wheel hub of the stroller. If the parent and stroller separate by more than two meters, the wireless connection is broken, the brake activates and the stroller is prevented from rolling any further.

The UGO brake system is powered by the rotation of the wheel and is fully contained within the wheel hub, which makes it simple to maintain and eliminates the need to replace batteries. It is designed to easily retrofit to existing strollers and prams.

While only on the drawing-board, the UGO braking system is a finalist in this year's Australian Design Awards student category. Its designer, University of New South Wales student James Wansey, was motivated by the high number of children treated each year for stroller-related injuries in Australia and the occasional fatality. Of the 580 children treated, 10 percent is estimated to have arisen from cases where the stroller has rolled away. There were two deaths in 2007.

"The UGO Safety Brake is a solution to this problem by providing parents with a product that will decrease their child’s risk of injury," says Wansey.

Hi there,
We’ve noticed this product concept from the 2009 Australian Design Award-James Dyson Award has caught your interest and we wanted to say thank you for the write up.
Just to give you a quick update, this project is now one of thirteen Australian product concepts that have made it through into the global James Dyson Award- a competition that spans 21 countries to identify the best young inventors from around the world. From now through till the 20th July 2009, your readers can vote for this project or another entry in the James Dyson Award on www.jamesdysonaward.org. FYI- From each country, the project which receives the most votes will get an automatic entry as a shortlist and the chance to win the grand prize of £10,000 for themselves and another £10,000 for their university!

Shanon Pirchmoser

I have seen something very close to this on Canadian version of Dragons den. An ingenius idea. I bet there had to be some very strict safety testing and features implemented here. We will see if it will catch on. The prices of strollers are so high anyhow that a few extra 100$ for this break will not be a problem.